Illness/Sickness: Help my Fire Salamander is very sick!

[ninjaco]

We've had Sammy for about 4 years and he has never had any problems. The other day he wouldn't come out of his burrow, so I dug him out to give him some food. We generally feed him melee worms and vitamin stuffed crickets. He lives in a 10 gallon tank by himself, with amphibian soil from Pet Smart, a small log cave, and a small water dish.

Sammy's back legs are extremely swollen, and he doesn't seems to move them at all. He also seems to have swelling on his underside, and some sores. I have not been able to get him to eat and he doesn't want to move around at all.

After reading through the forums I'm worried he might have a bacterial or fungal infection. I removed him from his tank and into a new container with only treated water. What steps should I take next, firdgeing, salt baths, antibiotics?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[xMIDNIGHTx]

As a quick response I would say the sterile container with paper towel and clean water is the way to go for right now. I usually kept it damp with a lot of ventilation, on a daily basis I would put more water in so the tiger was able to soak for about 15, then replaced everything. After a week or two the sores healed up and it began to eat again. Keeping the salamander as cool as possible will slow the bacteria down and allow the salamanders immune system to fight the problem. I dont know about the antibiotics or salt baths being necessary, hopefully someone will be able to take it further.

On a side note that is a tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium). My problem came for high moisture and waste mixed with so poor ventilation. In your pics the substrate looks quite wet for coco fiber, this might have aided in causing the problem.

Mitch

 

[Jennewt]

I agree - the soil that I can see in the photos looks too wet. Move him to a damp paper towel setup for the moment. The paper towels should be just barely damp, not soaking wet. Change towels daily.

What temperature are you able to provide in the room where he stays? If it is over 72F, I would recommend moving him. A cool basement would be ideal. Fridging is another alternative, but I would recommend setting the fridge temperature high, like 50-55F. This won't be good for keeping food.

Since most of his problems seem to be internal, I wouldn't recommend salt baths. Proper use of an antibiotic would require help from a vet.

 

[ninjaco]

Thanks guys, I started the treatment you recommended shortly after I made this post last night. Sam is already showing improvement, his swelling is down and he seems to be able to move his back legs and tail a bit. He's still not eating, but I'm hoping that will come if we give him some time to heal and destress.

We usually don't keep his dirt that wet, before I found this forum I assumed his problem was that it was too hot and he needed more water. Thankfully I found some useful posts on here showing me that was the wrong thing to do.

I'm not sure why I called him a fire salamander, I knew he was a tiger; chalk it up to staying up late an being worried.

We keep him in a dark room at room temp most of the time. Right now we are fridging him which seems to make all the difference. We are going to sterilize his tank today and get a new set-up for when he is ready to come out. On the temperature side of things I'm going to get a thermomater to make sure his tank isn't hotter than we think it is. I had been using a treatment for his water, and plain tap water. Would it be better if I used pure drinking water?

 

[xMIDNIGHTx]

I would stay away from drinking (or distilled) water at stores. Use spring filtered water, but its always good patience to test the pH of those water found in stores, some can be quite acidic. Use can use tap water but it must be treated/aged for 24 hours. Sounds like you are treating it already which is good and should be fine.

It looks like he is well fed so I wouldn't worry about him eating right now. Just keep up with the treatment setup for now and as Jen said find out from the vet what else can be done. Keeping in a dark quiet place is good and will keep stress to a min. I would be careful not to subject him to large temperatures changes, try to ease him into them.

Also as Jen said salt baths will not help much. They are mostly used to treat external fungal infections now that I think about it.

Good luck,

Mitch

 

[Ingo]

AW: Help my Fire Salamander is very sick!

Hello,

in your superscription your write fire salamander, on the picture we can see a tigersalamander, just my comment...

Greetings Ingo V.

 

[ninjaco]

Like I said above it was late and I must have been spacing out. I'm not sure why I called him a fire, I knew he was a tiger.